


Motes & Motors: Junkyard Romance

by martieek



Series: Motes & Motors [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Greasers, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gift Giving, Kissing, Late at Night, Love Confessions, M/M, Romance, Vandalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 21:59:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14387964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martieek/pseuds/martieek
Summary: Who would have expected true love could be so... trashy?





	Motes & Motors: Junkyard Romance

Stone through glass is a distinct sound, Matt realized, and always louder than expected.  He recoiled as the junk car’s window shattered from his projectile, and he laughed with nervous exhilaration in the cold light of the flickering street lamps around the chain link fence.

“Not bad,” Shiro said, leaning against a rusted buggy.  “But why don’t you let the pro show you how it’s done?”

Playful confidence eased into Shiro’s form, and Matt fought off the hypnosis he felt when Shiro moved just the right way in just the right light.  Shiro tossed part of a brick into a scuffed windshield thirty feet ahead with the ease of skipping a pebble across a pond.  He seemed proud of the resulting carnage.

Matt hadn’t thought an evening in a metal-and-dirt-smelling junkyard would be such a grand time, but he also didn’t think it was possible to have a  _bad_  time with Shiro.  “Isn’t this like, sacrilege for you?” Matt asked.  “I mean, you repair things for a living. This is pretty counterintuitive.”

Shiro shrugged, kicking through debris in search of nothing obvious to Matt.  “Isn’t there some law of nature about give and take?  For everything I fix, I have a moral obligation to destroy something else.”

“Life for a life?  Works for me.”

Looking up, Shiro asked, “Can I show you something cool?”

“Besides you smoking in leather?”

Shiro ruffled Matt’s hair before pulling at his sleeve to lead him back through the gate from whence they came.  When Matt repositioned his arm to grab Shiro’s hand, it seemed to return his grip independent of Shiro’s acknowledgement.  Gaze set firmly ahead, Shiro’s long-legged pace was almost too much for Matt to keep up with without doing the awkward too-fast-to-be-walking-but-not-quite-running thing.  He didn’t say anything though; he was determined to keep up no matter how fast Shiro went or where he was going.

They made their way from the scrap yard back to the streets of the nearby housing area, slick from the rain earlier that afternoon, a thin icing of fog layered above the pavement.  Shiro led Matt into an alley, the looks of which would have given Matt the creeps under any other circumstances.

“What’s this, your summer abode?” Matt joked, curious as to what could possibly be so “cool” back here.  Distant urban sounds ricocheted off the brick surrounding them.

“Yeah, I’m going for that minimalist thing,” said Shiro.  In front of seemingly nothing but a couple of dumpsters and some puddles is where they finally stopped, leaving Matt a little winded—not that he’d admit it. Releasing Matt’s hand to lean down, Shiro shifted some cardboard and plastic next to the dumpster and grabbed a small tin from underneath, handing it to Matt.  “Here.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you meant ‘cool’ as in ‘mints,’” Matt poked, but the earnest expression on Shiro’s face intrigued him, and he curiously opened the container to reveal a… Well, Matt wasn’t sure at first what it was.  

From underneath thin wax paper, Matt carefully pulled the lump out.  He couldn’t tell the color in this light, but it was a deep dark for sure.   _A rock?_   It was cold and textured.

“It’s a meteorite,” Shiro said, apparently seeing Matt’s lack of recognition.  “Well, I’m pretty sure.   Part of one, anyway.”

Matt flashed an incredulous smile.  “How can you tell?”

“I used a rock-identifying website thing.”

“Why are you keeping it beside a dumpster?”

“That’s where I found it.”  Shiro’s shoulders started hunching a bit.  Matt guessed he hadn’t reacted the way Shiro had expected, causing guilt to flicker in his stomach.

“I didn’t want to take it in case it belonged to someone,” Shiro went on, “but I thought you’d like it anyway.  ‘Cause, y’know, space.”

Matt closed his fingers tight around the bit of meteorite, offering an assuring smile.  “I think it’s great, Shiro, but if you found it in the garbage, I’m sure no one will be missing it.  What are you doing investigating dumpsters anyway?”

Another shrug.  “Sometimes people throw out perfectly good parts and equipment I can use at the garage.”

“So you take that stuff but not this?”  Matt felt bad being so antagonistic, but it came from a soft place.

“Well, it wasn’t  _in_  the garbage, and it was all packaged up like that, so I thought—I dunno, maybe someone was hiding it?  It seemed out of place, I don’t know!”

Matt hugged Shiro, laughing but sympathetic to him being flustered.  “You have an honorable thought process.  I’m glad that this made you think of me.”

Mumbling into Matt’s hair, he said, “I guess it  _has_  been here for over a week.  You could probably keep it.”

“Thanks for relinquishing your garbage rock unto me.”

“You’re the worst.”

“I want to look at it in the light, come on.”  Matt reclaimed hold of Shiro’s hand, taking the lead this time back into the main street, under the clammy glow of the street lamps.  Matt knew this light in particular wasn’t ideal for examining anything with any real scrutiny, but his whole body buzzed with the thrill of being out late with a cute guy who just gave him a space rock he found in a trash heap, just as any gentleman  _should_.

The meteorite had its expected metallic shimmer as Matt twisted it around, taking in the pocks and shadows peppering its surface.  Next to him, Shiro leaned against the wall, doing the cool-guy pose Matt wasn’t sure was deliberate or if it was habitual.

“Which planet do you think it came from?” Matt asked, turning to rest his own shoulder on the wall, mirroring Shiro.  “How far do you think it traveled to arrive here?  Man, how crazy is it that out of literally anywhere in the universe, it’s here?”

Shiro considered with a half-grin.  “I guess you could say that about a lot of things.  ‘How rare and beautiful it is to even exist,’ or whatever.”

“The ‘or whatever’ really adds some weight to that sentiment.”

“Shut up.”

“Fine.”  Matt returned the meteorite to its tin, tucking it into his pocket before giving in to the urge he’d had since Shiro first showed up to steal him away earlier that evening.  Pulled into his kiss, Shiro put one hand to Matt's waist, tentative.  Matt didn’t want tentative.  Smiling against Shiro’s mouth, Matt pushed him back against the wall, pressing against him as much as he could.  He didn’t want any space between them.  He wanted to feel Shiro’s heartbeat against his own, which was stuttering in spite of his apparent confidence.

Matt smiled again in delight when Shiro’s grip tightened around him, kissing back with the force Matt privately longed for.  They started to lose any grace they might have had, hands and mouths desperate.   _I did not plan any further than this_ , Matt thought.  Not wanting to jump to conclusions, he still had a brief flash of panic.   _Oh, jeeze, what if we… In the street?_

The panic, however, dissipated into a tingling curiosity when Shiro broke the kiss.  Matt was giddy, Shiro’s arms still tight around him, their foreheads just grazing each other.  In spite of his stupid grin, Matt cocked his head a bit when he realized the intensity of Shiro’s expression.

He wasn’t smiling like Matt.  He looked… Sad?  So close to Matt’s own, Shiro’s eyes seemed darker than ever, boring into Matt with more intimacy than the kiss.  It caused Matt’s heart to skip a beat, but he tried to play it off casually.

“What are you looking for?” said Matt, unexpectedly hoarse, unable to break eye contact.  His smile began to wane, though, when Shiro didn’t answer with more than a slight head shake and the brush of a finger against Matt’s jaw.

Worried, Matt tried to steady his breathing, unable to turn off babbling mode.  “You know, your pupils tend to dilate when you’re looking at something…”  Matt trailed off, hesitant to complete the half-joke of a sentence, but Shiro broke his silence to finish it for him.

“…You love.”

Matt could feel Shiro’s nervous trembling, trying to ignore his own. “Well, it’s just a typical response to stimuli in general, not necessarily—”

“ _MattIloveyou._ ”

It came out as one word that hit Matt like a sucker punch—well, not really a sucker punch because those are inherently unexpected, and Matt kind of saw this coming, but not really?  Well, he thought it might, maybe, but he didn’t think it’d  _actually_  happen, even if part of his subconscious was hoping— _really_  hoping—for it.  Well, actually—shit, Shiro was staring at him with an expression so vulnerable Matt needed to take a deep breath before remembering to respond.

“What a coincidence,” was all that came out.

It must have been good enough, because Matt saw the hint of relief edge into Shiro’s face, however hesitant.  “I thought you men of science weren’t big on coincidences.”

“Please, I’m trying to execute my smooth wit and charm.”

“Sorry, go ahead.”

“No, the moment’s passed.  Timing is everything.”

In spite of himself, Shiro let out a soft laugh, drawing one from Matt in turn.  “Here.” Shiro put his hands to Matt’s face.  “Let’s rewind.”  He kissed Matt again, earnest.

“So about here,” Shiro said, breaking away after a moment, “is when I realized, ‘Oh, no. I think… I love him.’  And that was a scary thought because I’m not…” He hesitated with an unsure smile, fingers still trembling against Matt’s face, who was doing his best not to laugh—not out of finding it funny; he just felt a euphoric hum throughout his body. But Matt didn’t want to interrupt Shiro; for once he kept his mouth shut.

“I just… I had to look at you,” Shiro continued shakily, seeming bewildered, treading his vocabulary with apparent mindfulness.  “I mean, the kissing is good, I’m a big fan,” he laughed, “but, I had to  _look at you_.  Like maybe… Maybe you were going to say something—anything—that would cement that fact in my mind.  And you said—”

“’What are you looking for?’” Matt affirmed.

Shiro sighed, voice barely above a whisper.  “And I swear, my only thought was, ‘I’ve already found it.’”

Matt thought he was going to melt.  “Wow,” he breathed.  “That’s gay.”

“You know what?”  Shiro laughed, pressing his forehead to Matt’s.  “I change my mind.  Fuck you.”

Matt held Shiro’s face to ensure they kept eye contact as he spoke with full sincerity now.  “I’m way ahead of you, Takashi.  I’m pretty sure I’ve loved you from the start.”

The way Shiro’s eyes flashed made Matt think he was going to crack his own joke this time, but his expression softened without a word.

“So…” Matt started.  “What do we do now?”

“Wanna split a milkshake?”

“I dunno, that might be moving too fast. Why don’t we start with some fries and work our way up from there?”

“Works for me.”  Shiro took hold of Matt’s hand, the two of them red-faced and smiling like the idiots Matt knew they were.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm such a weakling for dramatic confessions, and soft Shiro, and Matt being a total snark but then calling shiro "takashi" to let him know he's being serious hhhh I don't even remember what the voltron canon is anymore, this AU is my life now goodbye everyone,,
> 
> (hopefully I'm organizing these fics right on my profile lol, sorry if anything's set up confusingly!)
> 
> you can follow my art blog on tumblr @martieek!


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